After last week's slow box office, Hollywood is looking to rebound this week with a family film, a martial-arts film and an award-season contender all on tap. Here's a look at each, along with all the other new movies expected to open Friday (Nov. 2) in New Orleans-area theaters.

Disney goes gamer in its latest 3-D animated comedy, which doubles as an homage to video games of yesteryear. Boasting cameos from a number of characters from classic video games, it tells the story of a clumsy 8-bit villain who -- after 30 years of doing the same job -- just wants to be the hero for once. General chaos ensues.

Matthew McConaughey, left, and Zac Efron star in director Lee Daniels' New Orleans-shot drama 'The Paperboy.' It will open up the 2012 New Orleans Film Festival with a 7:30 p.m. screening on Oct. 11 at the Joy Theatre on Canal Street.Millennium Entertainment

After opening the 2012 New Orleans Film Festival last month, Lee Daniels' New Orleans-shot, Florida-set swamp drama gets a full theatrical run at The Theatres at Canal Place. Based on the novel by Pete Dexter, and featuring an impressive cast, it's about a young man who, in the late 1960s, enlists with his hotshot reporter brother to investigate a murder case that might have sent the wrong man to jail.

Robert Zemeckis directs a drama about an airline pilot (Denzel Washington) who is hailed as a hero after saving his passengers from certain doom -- until the resulting investigation brings up some troubling questions.

Wu-Tang Clan member RZA co-writes, directs and stars in a martial arts drama with attitude -- and boasting a "Quentin Tarantino presents" banner -- about a blacksmith in 19th-century China who must defend his village from a dark threat.

After winning the directing award at this past January's Sundance Film Festival, Ava DuVernay's quiet drama opens at the Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center. Starring Emayatzy Corinealdi, it tells the story of a young woman who puts med school on hold so she can stay close to her incarcerated husband, who is doing an eight-year stint.